Early Modern Art in California
Early California art, often synonymous with California's great impressionist and plein-air paintings of majestic California landscapes, dominated the California art scene during most of the first half of the 20th century. The Great Depression, World War II, and some highly influential academic, artisan, and museum professionals arriving in the early mid-century would have an everlasting effect and establish what is known today as San Francisco Bay Area Abstract Expressionism (SFAbex).
California and the United States economy were battered during the Great Depression (1929 - 1939). The Works Progress Administration (WPA, also known as the Works Projects Administration), a U.S. Federal Government agency, would be established to provide artists jobs and income during these turbulent times. During the Great Depression years, influenced by the WPA and challenging times, many of the California artists, often known as "The California School," worked with watercolor on paper since it was more affordable, and they depicted scenes of the harsh economic times. In addition to the American Scene watercolor paintings, government-sponsored murals often painted by young artists attending California's art schools would depict the Great Depression life on walls of government buildings throughout California.
One of the most transformative events in California's art history transpired in 1935: the San Francisco Museum of Art was established, and Grace McCann Morley was appointed director. McCann Morley's fondness for modern European art, combined with the influence of Bay Area artist instructors Glenn Wessels (1895-1982) and Worth Ryder (1884-1960), who taught at the California College of Arts and the University of California, Berkeley, respectively would begin to champion modern art in the Bay Area. Worth Ryder would be acknowledged as "largely responsible for the United States early interest in avant-garde art" [1] and would invite and successfully procure the renowned European avant-garde artist and teacher Hans Hofmann (1880-1966), who arrived from Germany in 1930 at the invitation of Worth Ryder to teach two summers at the University of California, Berkeley. These events and others mentioned in the upcoming sections will have an everlasting effect and begin the foundation of the American modern contemporary art scene in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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